Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/331

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Commerce of Haiti
295

peel, cedar, skins, cabinet wood and various grains which figure among the present exports of Haiti and are not mentioned in the statistics of the time of the French domination.[1]

It will be noticed that Haiti has just begun to raise cattle; and in 1904 she exported 1,414 horses and mules and 1,521 oxen.

In spite of these well-founded facts there are still people of bad faith who declare that such is the laziness of the Haitians that the coffee which they have been exporting since their independence is the product of the plantations of the French colonists.

In 1890 the total amount of the commerce of Haiti was estimated at $24,226,758, the exports amounting to $14,165,788 and the imports to $10,060,979. The imports from the United States amounted to the sum of $6,454,600, whilst the exports of Haiti to the United States amounted to $2,289,292.[2]

Owing to various causes, the most important of which being the exceedingly low price of coffee, the commerce of Haiti has of late considerably decreased. In 1903 her imports amounted only to $3,981,675 and her exports to $8,585,687.[3] According to the "Foreign Commerce of the United States," page 298, imports of the United States from Haiti, for the fiscal year ended 30th June, 1904, amounted to $1,214,133, and their exports to this country

  1. National Bank of Haiti, statement made on December 31, 1904.
  2. Report made to the Haitian Congress for the year 1890:
    Exports from Haiti to the United States $2,289,292
    France 8,437,500
    England, Germany, Belgium, etc. 3,518,986
    Imports to Haiti from the United States $6,454,600
    Germany 1,930,713
    France 917,994
    England 662,190
    Others 95,580
  3. Report made to the Haitian Congress:
    Imports from the United States $2,917,302
    France 389,437
    England 385,678
    Germany 61,401
    Others 227,675